GST financial update: GST still hasn't paid Miramar for stadium, MJ says they had cash crunch after key investor pulled out after going to Jamaica event
Investor went to Jamaica and saw no-one was there. Like me, he or she must have been stunned by how few people were there.
Immediately decided to cut bait and not dump more money into venture. Investor (or GST), like many in the country. tries to blame it on Trump. Can someone please tell me how tariffs would impact a pro sports league?
PS. Here is the link to Young's actual article which I have added to the first post.
Also Corey Mull has a tweet out about how they haven't paid Miramar:
Your lemming colors are showing. Pathetically carrying water for the capriciousness of the petulant short fingered vulgarian in the White House. Whatever VC backed out surely has money in many things that were impacted or the markets felt would be impacted based on the nonsensical announcements made by the prez. Of course, would it be today, as the markets have learned of the TACO of it all, perhaps it’d be different. Don’t blame them for being scared off by the empty stands at the first meet. Not surprised scummy capitalists back out and look for excuses. Just wait to see how the Epstein bff excuses the failings of his “policies” in the coming months.
You sound like one of the trolls designated to covering for the long fingered, nation wrecking, scatological freaks who run the Fed, the Media, and useful idiots like yourself. That fact out of the way, anyone who would trust Michael Johnson is a fool. He’s as crooked as the people who guide him.
Also those that say they shouldn’t have gone to Jamaica I’d just point out that through out the three televised meets Jamaica was the number one advertiser on tv. So I’m sure things were more complicated than just choosing a location
Exactly. The investor's portfolio probably took a hit from the moron in the WH who doesn't understand how tariffs work. If they're losing money elsewhere, investing a a risky venture like GST probably didn't seem worth it, especially after the Kingston meet was a total bomb.
Nasdaq and S&P are both at all time highs and are up about 8-9% (each) year to date. As a long time Democrat, he's done great things for the economy, for women's sports, for the border, and more. If that's the type of "hit" the market is taking, I want another one.
Can someone please tell me how tariffs would impact a pro sports league?
Let's remember Kingston was April 4-6 ... Trumps "liberation day tariffs" were April 2 and his first chickening out, before we knew he always chickens out was April 9. This was about the worse time imaginable to be starting a highly speculative new venture.
Bummer GST didn't have that money more locked down. But Trump did not help that week.
Agreed. Regardless of political affiliation, let's not forget the first week of April was terrible for the stock market. It was so bad there's a Wikipedia page about it:
Starting on April 2, 2025, global stock markets crashed amid increased volatility following the introduction of new tariff policies by United States President Donald Trump during his second term. On April 2, which he called "Liberation Day", Trump announced sweeping tariffs impacting nearly all sectors of the US economy. The announcement triggered widespread panic selling across global stock markets, including those in the United States. It became the largest global market decline since the 2020 stock market crash, which occurred during the recession caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.
On the same Friday that GST Kingston started, Warren Buffett, Larry Ellison, and Mark Zuckerberg each lost close to $10 billion.
It's absolutely plausible that an investor who was losing substantial money in the stock market that first week in April decided to pull out of GST after seeing the disappointing turnout in Kingston.
Starting on April 2, 2025, global stock markets crashed amid increased volatility following the introduction of new tariff policies by United States President Donald Trump during his second term. On April 2, which he called "...
Billionaires are feeling the burn amid the fallout from Trump’s tariff announcement—with the stock market crash resulting in names like Warren Buffett, Larry Ellison, and Mark Zuckerberg all losing billions in wealth in just...
Global stock markets extended their recent rout on Friday, with S&P 500 companies wiping out $5 trillion in stock market value since U.S. President Donald Trump unveiled sweeping tariffs on Wednesday, while investors fled to...
Let's remember Kingston was April 4-6 ... Trumps "liberation day tariffs" were April 2 and his first chickening out, before we knew he always chickens out was April 9. This was about the worse time imaginable to be starting a highly speculative new venture.
Bummer GST didn't have that money more locked down. But Trump did not help that week.
Agreed. Regardless of political affiliation, let's not forget the first week of April was terrible for the stock market. It was so bad there's a Wikipedia page about it:
Starting on April 2, 2025, global stock markets crashed amid increased volatility following the introduction of new tariff policies by United States President Donald Trump during his second term. On April 2, which he called "Liberation Day", Trump announced sweeping tariffs impacting nearly all sectors of the US economy. The announcement triggered widespread panic selling across global stock markets, including those in the United States. It became the largest global market decline since the 2020 stock market crash, which occurred during the recession caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.
On the same Friday that GST Kingston started, Warren Buffett, Larry Ellison, and Mark Zuckerberg each lost close to $10 billion.
It's absolutely plausible that an investor who was losing substantial money in the stock market that first week in April decided to pull out of GST after seeing the disappointing turnout in Kingston.
6 people upvoted this? Six. You have got to be kidding me.
How about this - an investor who was completely clueless about what might make a successful track league (like you) bought into Michael Johnsons stupid concept that even the majority of keyboard weasels could connect the dots on, but then quickly and astutely realized after the first meet (because they still have eyes) that this was a flawed and bad concept, and hence pulled their cash.
Maybe it's that simple. Maybe not everyone is an overly optimistic idiot (wink wink). So now we play the most American of games - "blame it on something else". Must have been the "tariffs" or the "market". Yeah that's it "McRunnin". The "market".
Michael Johnson admitted that knew he didn’t have sufficient funding and deceived people
Hmmm, some people might call that fraud.
The fact that some people might call it fraud doesn’t mean it meets any legal definition of fraud. MJ bungled this badly. But I’m sure you can make a case that he earnestly believed all along—and maybe still does—that he will pay everyone everything. He hasn’t defrauded anyone. Defaulted, maybe. But that’s not a crime.
They were way over their skis on this one. I really hope the athletes eventually get paid.
Some very telling quotes in here but the biggest takeaway for me was that they didn't have true contractual commitments to the money before promising athletes money. A term sheet from an investor, even if signed, is almost always non-binding. They never should have gone forward before they actually secured funding.
That's not going to happen. If he can't even pay for one of his damn venues (owed to an entity - a city council, that has the means to come after him legally) the chances that a low profile athlete gets their money (and maybe even a high profile one) is slim to none.
This is an all-time clusterf-ck. It's so embarrassing for the sport because Michael Johnson will go back to his little hole and reminisce over his glory days, all the medals, missed dru... , uh I mean records and people will just forget about him. But the smell of this will attach itself to the sport and the next person that comes along wanting to do something to try and help the sport grow.
I personally don't even take any joy anymore out of being 100% vindicated on my stance on GST since the moment Michael Johnson made his SH-TTY concept public. If I never have to hear the name of Americas "Olympic Hero" ever again that would sit just fine with me.
Investor went to Jamaica and saw no-one was there. Like me, he or she must have been stunned by how few people were there.
Immediately decided to cut bait and not dump more money into venture. Investor (or GST), like many in the country. tries to blame it on Trump. Can someone please tell me how tariffs would impact a pro sports league?
Dennis Young wrote: A source familiar with the matter told FOS the investor reneged on their eight-figure term sheet days after attending Grand Slam’s April debut in Kingston, Jamaica, saying they planned to invest their money elsewhere after President Donald Trump’s tariff announcement.
PS. Here is the link to Young's actual article which I have added to the first post.
Also Corey Mull has a tweet out about how they haven't paid Miramar:
Agreed. Regardless of political affiliation, let's not forget the first week of April was terrible for the stock market. It was so bad there's a Wikipedia page about it:
Starting on April 2, 2025, global stock markets crashed amid increased volatility following the introduction of new tariff policies by United States President Donald Trump during his second term. On April 2, which he called "Liberation Day", Trump announced sweeping tariffs impacting nearly all sectors of the US economy. The announcement triggered widespread panic selling across global stock markets, including those in the United States. It became the largest global market decline since the 2020 stock market crash, which occurred during the recession caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.
On the same Friday that GST Kingston started, Warren Buffett, Larry Ellison, and Mark Zuckerberg each lost close to $10 billion.
It's absolutely plausible that an investor who was losing substantial money in the stock market that first week in April decided to pull out of GST after seeing the disappointing turnout in Kingston.
6 people upvoted this? Six. You have got to be kidding me.
How about this - an investor who was completely clueless about what might make a successful track league (like you) bought into Michael Johnsons stupid concept that even the majority of keyboard weasels could connect the dots on, but then quickly and astutely realized after the first meet (because they still have eyes) that this was a flawed and bad concept, and hence pulled their cash.
Maybe it's that simple. Maybe not everyone is an overly optimistic idiot (wink wink). So now we play the most American of games - "blame it on something else". Must have been the "tariffs" or the "market". Yeah that's it "McRunnin". The "market".
Hmm, sounds like you have a personal grudge against me. How convenient that you don't have a registered username.
I don't care for the insults, but let's dive into your criticisms of my takes on GST:
You say "I'm completely clueless about what might a successful track league." In post 81 of the thread linked below, I proposed tweaking GST to a series of compact one-day meets with no forced doubling, modified event groups that would offer the benefit of not seeing racers do the same event at each meet, and facilitation of special matchups that fans want to see. That was a popular proposal in the thread, with a upvote-downvote ratio of 26-3. In another thread, I suggested a way to add in field events, and I've consistently called for better meet promotion. Tell me:
What is clueless about what I proposed?
If you're so knowledgeable about what would make a successful track league (especially in the United States), how would you organize it?
As for being "overly optimistic," I don't recall ever saying that GST was going to be a smashing success. I do recall being excited about seeing something different, enjoying tactical distance racing, giving kudos to GST for assembling a high-quality roster of athletes as a startup league, appreciating having more track to watch before June, urging people to keep expectations reasonable / not be overly critical of something in its first year, and praising GST for getting noticeably better with each meet. You may think that's being "overly optimistic", but I just see it as being fair.
He didn’t say that tariffs impacted the sports league. He said that they planned to invest elsewhere post-tariffs.
Do you understand the difference?
So what, "better" investments just popped up post tariffs - even though a track and field league ostensibly has nothing to do with these tariffs (ie. didn't make it a better or worse investment) and all this happens around the time that the first meet goes off with a crowd of about 10000 people across 3 days and some of the most comically bad races ever seen in the sport at a pro level (a 3000m won in 7.50 where the guy jogged the final 100m in 18 seconds). This was just a coincidence completely unrelated and solely due to tariffs and the redirection of investor money?
Quick question for you - how is it living in a effing dreamworld buddy? You enjoying it? God lord.
Exactly. The investor's portfolio probably took a hit from the moron in the WH who doesn't understand how tariffs work. If they're losing money elsewhere, investing a a risky venture like GST probably didn't seem worth it, especially after the Kingston meet was a total bomb.
lol. Stock market HIT AN ALL TIME HIGH AFTER “tarrifs”. You sir, are the moron, blinded by political intolerance.
It took weeks for the market to recover, after it became clear that the moron always chickens out. This investor got cold feet in early April
Let's remember Kingston was April 4-6 ... Trumps "liberation day tariffs" were April 2 and his first chickening out, before we knew he always chickens out was April 9. This was about the worse time imaginable to be starting a highly speculative new venture.
Bummer GST didn't have that money more locked down. But Trump did not help that week.
Agreed. Regardless of political affiliation, let's not forget the first week of April was terrible for the stock market. It was so bad there's a Wikipedia page about it:
Starting on April 2, 2025, global stock markets crashed amid increased volatility following the introduction of new tariff policies by United States President Donald Trump during his second term. On April 2, which he called "Liberation Day", Trump announced sweeping tariffs impacting nearly all sectors of the US economy. The announcement triggered widespread panic selling across global stock markets, including those in the United States. It became the largest global market decline since the 2020 stock market crash, which occurred during the recession caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.
On the same Friday that GST Kingston started, Warren Buffett, Larry Ellison, and Mark Zuckerberg each lost close to $10 billion.
It's absolutely plausible that an investor who was losing substantial money in the stock market that first week in April decided to pull out of GST after seeing the disappointing turnout in Kingston.
Just for completeness sake the flip side is also potentially possible
Just purely from a number standpoint - Thinking on the market as an investor at beginning of April you thought the Market may give you 5% for the remainder of the year and the GST investment would be worth say 10%
After the tariff chaos (if you believed it was a "TACO" story) then suddenly the market could give you 20% and GST still only 10% (After Jamaica you could say 5% ..)
So on a relative basis you can easily decide to reallocate that money to the stock market instead of GST
We all suspect but don't have the emails, documents, audios, videos that prove that Track Town USA and Nike Beaverton installed Michael Johnson and Kyle Merber to shaft Petr Stasny and Seb Coe. It's common hearsay.
